Jesse Bliss, the founder and artistic director of the nonprofit The Roots and Wings Project, has spent a lot of time sitting and praying by the American River in Sacramento. It is her favorite place on the planet, and it inspired her to write her new play, \u201cRealm of the River,\u201d opening at The Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts, running from Sept. 18-27.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me nine years to develop because it wasn\u2019t for a commission, it came from my heart,\u201d Bliss shared. \u201cI kept getting commissioned pieces that I would set it down for and then finally last year, I couldn\u2019t take it anymore. It was not convenient. I\u2019m a single parent. I run a company, and we\u2019re constantly in production. I said, I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m going to do what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bliss woke at 4 a.m. and found herself writing in weird places at weird times. She completed it, and when she finally heard a run through as part of her organization\u2019s Women at Work new works reading series, she realized just how much she believed in the piece.<\/p>\n
Bliss\u2019s mother lives across the street from the American River, and it has become the place she returns to for quiet, clarity and renewal since moving to Los Angeles in January 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t something I purposely set out to do,\u201d Bliss explained, \u201cbut it came through me from this strong fascination and connection I have with the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThough these characters face extreme adversity, they do not allow it to steal their light,\u201d said Jesse Bliss about her play, \u201cRealm of the River.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Brianna Rose Photography\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
\u201cRealm of the River\u201d explores female friendship, collective healing and the divine. The action moves between a nightclub and a sacred river, guided by the projection art of Hessed Porras, who has done live-performance visual work for M.I.A. and Will Smith.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story will be told through projections that have been handcrafted for this play,\u201d relayed Bliss. \u201cThe play switches environments, and there\u2019s an interesting connection between the river and the nightclub because they\u2019re both sacred. They both have sparkle. They\u2019re both immersive. The play brings to light what those environments do for us and how there\u2019s certain places that we\u2019re drawn to as human beings that can be uplifting and transformative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricardo \u201cBoogie Frantick\u201d Rodriguez Jr., a local dancer known worldwide for his mastery of the street dance style popping, is responsible for the choreography for the production. Bliss had directed Frantick over the years as an actor, and they \u201chave a shorthand that really paid off for this production,\u201d Bliss said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in that room, we spoke for four minutes while the actors warmed up and he lit that movement on fire,\u201d said Bliss. \u201cWhen Frantick came to The Roots and Wings Project, he was a dancer acting. In this case, I told him, you\u2019re not laying choreography on dancers, you\u2019re laying choreography on actors. He has an extraordinary sensitivity for what it means as an artist to stretch into a place that\u2019s unfamiliar.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to its theatrical run at Inner-City Arts, \u201cRealm of the River\u201d will be performed at the California Institution for Women (CIW). The Roots and Wings Project has conducted writing programs in women\u2019s prisons for the past eight years. Bliss views the CIW presentation as part of a larger conversation about women, violence and the ways society responds to abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work is important to me,\u201d Bliss stated. \u201cWhen I go into the prisons, that work to me is deeply healing. I\u2019m learning from them, and it\u2019s a constant reminder of the depth of the work that exists that we don\u2019t always access in our professional work. It reminds me why it\u2019s so important to keep creating because there\u2019s so many women that don\u2019t have their basic needs met, and they definitely don\u2019t have opportunities to tell their story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bliss has a direct connection to prison. At the age of 16, her boyfriend ended up in federal prison. She would visit him and talk on the phone and write him letters daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was what planted the seed,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how that would impact my life as an artist until 2003. There was an opportunity to facilitate a playwriting program at a youth prison in Hillcrest Juvenile Hall. I became unraveled because the girl I was mentoring had survived sexual abuse. We didn\u2019t say a word about it to each other, and it all came out in her play. It was healing for her to write about what she had endured and have actors perform her script. It awakened in me how that experience with prison had really shaped my life in such a big way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucky for Bliss, a girl from Phoenix who created and acted out scenes in her bedroom starting at age 6 and wrote and directed her first play at age 11, the performing arts is now her playground, office and spiritual center. Organizations such as LA County Department of Arts and Culture, California Arts Council and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have seen the value and provide funding for her work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been life-saving for me,\u201d said Bliss. \u201cI\u2019m driven by the work. It\u2019s a fire that has burned in me since my earliest memories. I\u2019ve always had this feeling that life is really short. I always have this feeling that there\u2019s not a lot of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter motivates me,\u201d she continued. \u201cShe\u2019s a better version of me. She\u2019s also compelled by the theater and to me that\u2019s indicative that it must be something in the blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opening night of \u201cRealm of the River\u201d will begin with a special pre-show vinyl DJ set presented in collaboration with The Artform Studio. Sherry Younge and Patchouli Nomad \u2014 both members of The Artform Studio \u2014 will begin their set when doors open at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse Bliss, the founder and artistic director of the nonprofit The Roots and Wings Project, has spent a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,100],"class_list":["post-463363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}